


But Tell Me the Truth

by SandrC



Series: Balance My Deeds With My Misdeeds [26]
Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Present Tense, Second person POV, Taako Tuesday, ep 59 spoilers, i am emotionally compromised, look - Freeform, my homestuck is showing, my precious son, super not on a Tuesday
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-25
Updated: 2017-03-25
Packaged: 2018-10-10 11:33:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,821
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10436748
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SandrC/pseuds/SandrC
Summary: Your name is Angus McDonald and you're done with being someone's patsy.(Or: I love my boy detective son and I am an emotional wreck over episode 59)(Also: have you ever really thought about how smart this kiddo really is? Cause he's fucking smart as shit. So smart. My son.)(Also also: I'm not crying, there's Hunger in my eyes.)





	

**Author's Note:**

> WELCOME TO THE PAIN TRAIN! NEXT STATION: AUSTIN, TEXAS. WHO'S COMING WITH ME TO KICK SOME MCELROY ASS?!!
> 
> Okay, now that I got that shit down, time for some real talk. That last episode was fucking an amazing and emotional journey and I just can't anymore. It was absolutely wrecking me. Wrecked me. Regardless.
> 
> I kinda...abused the comma a bit so there are some SUPER run-on sentences. But when you do internal dialogue style narration, cadance is better than following the rules. Especially when they concern run-ons and fragments.
> 
> Who else loves my son? I love my son!
> 
> (Also: Lucretia not being Big Bad is nice. I'm glad she got redeemed via Grey Morality but like hoo boy. Davenport is a thing now. Congrats Drew!)
> 
> Um...playing a bit loose with canon order of shit in the episodes contained in this fic. And dialogue too. Yeah...

Your name is Angus McDonald and you are fucking done with this bullshit. You are _done_ with the lying and the hiding and the hurting. You're _tired_ of being the one that has to prod and press at every open wound until it bleeds clean. You're not a fucking cleric! You're Angus McDonald, Moon's Best Detective, and you are done being someone's patsy.

So when Merle and Taako step out of the cannonball, a towering wooden mannequin in glittering armor behind them, the Animus Bell in their hands and themselves looking considerably worse for wear, your bullshit meter was pinging like a blacksmith during a war. You watch their performance carefully, the way Taako throws his arms around flippantly, the way Merle chokes when he says that Magnus is dead, the long silence where Taako looks like he's thinking and Merle just looks confused. There were tells, here and there, that gave away something that you couldn't piece together just yet. There weren't enough clues. You had to find them all.

You follow the Director to the Relic Destruction Chamber, padding behind her long and even strides, watching her for little notes on her inner thoughts. She was stricken by Magnus' death, yes, that was obvious. She drew back and her hand pressed against the right side of her chest, not at her heart, but almost out of habit, clutching something that wasn't there anymore. Her shoulders pinched together and she sucked in a sharp breath. Tears pricked at the corners of her eyes and she bit her lower lip, stifling whatever noise was bubbling up. Yes, she was sad about Magnus. But there was something _more_.

The Animus Bell made her eyes light up, dilating as she took in the subtle glow that the ancient Relic gave off. She leaned forward as Davenport took the orb and walked away with it. She was excited. _Why_? Grief should have swallowed her the same way that it did when Boyland or Captain Captain Bain died. There was still one more Relic! They weren't _done_ yet _and_ they were down a Reclaimer! But she moved on and you followed.

So you sit, in the corner of the room that allows you to see the chamber. Unbeknownst to anyone but you, you used your Mage Hand—invisible thanks to speccing out—to draw a small star on the orb in chalk. If she really _was_ destroying them. If she really _is_ the good guy. If she _isn't_ lying to you and everyone else in the Bureau about her intentions, then the mark will be on the orb that exits.

But it _isn't_. And she is.

The remaining Reclaimers put on a show when they pass through. You watch them in the way you learned, not appearing to pay them any mind, and see Merle blather on and on about 'getting close' and 'last rites' and so on. It's so insincere that it makes your teeth itch. You feel ill. He's using the death of his teammate, your friend, Magnus Burnsides, to wheedle his way into the Director's office?! _Deplorable_.

You never had a high regard for the cleric—his faith was shaky at best and best was fucking awful—but to stoop so low as to use another person's emotions like that is a new low. Deep low. The fucking Abyss low.

So you wait. And you follow. And you cast Blink—something you're going to brag to Taako about whe– _if_ he isn't a complete traitor—and slip into her office and reappear. The only thing out of place in the usually immaculate room is the door, the one that somehow is right next to the ornate and bespelled portrait of the Director herself, is ajar. And there are screams. And they are familiar.

So Angus rushes in. You rush in with your wand drawn and Silence cast before Taako—writhing on the floor and gibbering as he lay under the thrall of some illusory magic, as was Merle—could blink back the lucidity in his brain. And then you fling Zone of Truth at them. You feel it wash over three people—which is odd because you only count _two_ heads—and Taako and Merle look directly at you. Merle's one eye is wide and terrified and Taako is actually concerned and...relieved?

"Now, I need you to cut the shit and tell me the truth or-or you'll regret it! I promise you! I'm sick of this shit!" Your wand is leveled at Taako—Merle is less of a threat but you know you can elude him for a long time before you run out of spell slots—and Scorching Ray builds at its tip. You just need the somatic and verbal components and Taako's gonna get it. And he doesn't look like he has much left to give, judging by how his breath hitches in his throat when he realizes what spell you have readied.

"Angus," he begins, but you cut him off.

"N-no! I mean it! What are you two doing here?! What really happened to Magnus?! And why are you being so dodgy?!"

"A-actually: I'm here too!" A voice comes from inside Taako's bag as the head of a man that looks remarkably like Tom Arnold—why you know that is unclear, cause you don't know a Tom Arnold—comes poking out, sans body. "And I'm not supposed to be here. We're all not, to be honest, but I'm gettin' kinda claustrophobic in here and I'm very confused."

Merle rolls his eyes. _Eye_. His one eye. "Good going Barold!"

"He's under Zone of Truth! Didja think he was gonna lie?!" Taako snapped.

"Well we are!" And there it is. Merle giving away, as usual, whatever secret they were trying to keep. Predictable and useful. You raise an eyebrow and start to cast Zone of Truth again when Merle beats you to the punch. And...Taako lets it take him? You can feel the magic sink into his skin, washing away whatever was there and leaving him looking slightly...off. And he opens his mouth and says four words that break your heart.

"Angus. I trust you."

And so he tells you. He tells you about Barry Bluejeans, the human man who was once a lich and a redrobe but doesn't remember any of that right now, who helped them in so many ways. He tells you about Wonderland and the lich twins, about losses and losses and losses, about pain and torment and suffering. He tells you about Magnus being dodgy and Merle's god not answering him. He tells you about Cam, and what he said about Lucretia. He tells you about the challenges and what they refused to give up and what they chose to give up. Merle's eye, Magnus' finger, his own beauty, health, possessions, and Magnus' memories of his wife's murderer.

Your chest hitches then. You know about her. You know about Julia.

It was a simple enough task. He said where he was from so often that all you had to do was look. You found Raven's Roost. Then you found the story of the mad governer Callan. Of the two that stopped him and yet spared him. Of the two that got married and led a prosperous life for a short time. You found records of that year's awarding of the title 'Master Craftsman' having been given to one Magnus Burnsides. You found reports of the destruction caused by Callan's callous actions and selfish revenge. You heard stories of a man, carrying an ornate chair on his back that smelled vaguely of lavender, seeing the wreck and completely falling to pieces. The man throwing the chair against the rubble and screaming for all he was worth. The man pulling a soot-covered wedding band from the wreckage, prying it off the finger of a charred corpse, and cradling it to his chest while he sobbed. You found reports of a man making his way away from the wreckage of Raven's Roost, leaving bar fights and destroyed property in his wake. And you found the Craig's List ad. You know and you wish you didn't. It hurts you and you know it hurt Magnus more.

Hurt. Past-tense. _Dead_. Only _not_?

Because Taako continues, on a roll now and crunched for time. He tells you of lich-Barry using the negativity that Wonderland ran on to allow them to escape. He tells you of the catwalk, of the mannequins, of the twins, of the bell, of Magnus, pitching away from his body as Edward takes it and leers, says in a voice that is Magnus and not Magnus all at the same time, that he'll leave them. And Taako ejects himself from his body. And his body slumps to the ground.

He tells you of the rift leading to the Astral plane, of Magnus looking at Taako and looking content and hopeful, of Taako grabbing ahold of him and pulling them away from the oily tar that was eating up the Astral plane and his boyfriend, of Merle twisting a spell to obey him and reaching out and grabbing them both, of his return to his body, of the mannequin that stands up and points an accusatory finger at the lich inhabiting Magnus' body and demands his body back.

 _Oh_ , you think, _the mannequin._ That makes more sense than Magnus just up and dying. Especially with their dampened reactions to his 'death'—which...on a technicality, is a _legitimate_ death—and their insistence to do other things than grieve.

He tells you of the battle that ensued. He paints a quick picture, abstract colors that make sense from a distance but not up close. He tells you of Edward falling from Magnus' body and being devoured and then regurgitated by his staff. He tells you of Lydia's rage, screams so terrible that he can still hear them, and her fury. He tells you of Magnus' body, a pile of ash that just drifts away as everyone in Wonderland is freed from their nightmare.

And then the ride back. The journey. The secrets. The reveals. He tells you about Magnus' hesitance and his reveal of a secret that your brain tries to redact but fails at completely removing. The statue in Refuge, he says, of the redrobe that brought Jack and June and the Chalice there. There is an alternate design that featured the hood of the redrobe down and the face of that man was Magnus Burnsides. And your brain stutters. You try to make the connection between the redrobe and Magnus but something shorts out and all you get is a fuzzy static where that conclusion should be, and that in and of itself is also familiar but _where_? _What_? So many questions!

Taako tells you about Barry reemerging from the tank, naked and confused, with only a coin to guide him. He tells you about their plan, their lie, their guise. He tells you about the body hidden in the back of the Fantasy Costco, grown by a strange warlock with a penchant for deals with blood that was signed on a standard round shield. He tells you about their argument with Magnus. He tells you that he was being genuine. He tells you that Magnus' next words broke his heart.

("These are the arms that held my wife!" They break yours as well.)

They part ways, they come here, they lie and cheat some more, and then now. And you stare down at him and Barry and Merle. And you smile. And you toss a piece of chalk down as Taako admits that, while they're not doing what is 'good', they're doing what they think is 'right'. That he doesn't want to see you hurt. That he cares about you.

"Sir," you nod at him, "what's right is always what's good, in my opinion."

You continue, the four of you, deeper into the mystery. And at its depth is a room, immaculate as the rest of the things that the Director owns, a desk with twin towers of journals, a holy symbol that glows with the magic that you recognize as the ambient itch that creeps over your skin no matter how many times you cast Dispel Magic, and a tank in the corner that your eye ghosts over and refuses to acknowledge.

Taako dips his flask in the tank as a coin starts speaking in Barry's voice and takes a swig. He passes it to Merle, who drinks, who passes it to Barry, who has already drank, who passes it to you. You drink, not because you recognize the ritual happening—because it is familiar but it's fuzz and fluff in your brain—but because you trust them and they trust the lich Barry so...

And it becomes clear. Like before, like the Voidfish, you see what you couldn't. You remember what you didn't. You can think things that evaded you before. Magnus was a redrobe. The redrobes made the Relics but they aren't _inherently_ bad. The thing in the tank is a baby Voidfish. And one last piece of info seeps in, too little too late.

An alarm is ringing.

Guards come. Barry, standing up from being doubled over in pain, insists that you all need to go quietly. He tells Merle and Taako to try and remember slowly or it would hurt them. He tells all of you to just go.

And you do. And Barry launches himself at Lucretia but is interrupted by Davenport and plants something on him. Nothing can escape your eyes but you hold your tongue because you want to see how this pans out. And you trust this Tom Arnold-looking-motherfucker (whomever Tom Arnold is).

She talks, confused, scared, excited, as she uses her staff, the last Relic, to absorb the power of the Bell. She asks, voice quavering, "you inoculated yourselves? You'll die! You'll remember to fast and it'll drive you _mad_!" And it clicks.

 _Maureen_. What Maureen saw. That must be what happened.

It's tragic.

It's _poetic_.

And she explains under Barry's hard glare. She tells of seven explorers from another reality, riding a silver ship to this realm in search of anything new. Barry, herself, Taako, his twin sister Lup(!!!), Merle, Magnus, and the captain of the ship. She explains their folly and their foolish effort to fix it. She talks about the Hunger, the great devouring that will end all life. She mentions the Light. She speaks sadly.

"Lup...," she pauses, "Taako, Barry, I'm so sorry but Lup is dead...and now? So is Magnus." You know better on the latter but the former—and Barry's reaction and Taako's lack-of—is far more shocking. Barry bites down on his lip and clenches his fists. Taako looks like he's found something and then lost it again. He must've remembered her just then.

She explains that she had to do this. She had to make the Bureau of Balance. She had to instill distrust of the redrobes into the members. She had to manipulate Taako, Merle, and Magnus so that they would come in contact with the Gauntlet. So that they would be sent to the Bureau. So that they, and they alone, could retrieve the Relics whose thrall they could resist because they helped make them. So that they, as a collective, could fix their mistake.

She took out all their memories of what made them them, she admits. Any and everyone who would have had knowledge about them and their mission and the Relics had to forget or the Hunger would find them. And when the boys came up, she had to move some of the memories to the baby Voidfish because you could drink from the mom and not remember what the baby ate.

"I left you your names and your childhoods," she admits, head held low and entire body giving off waves of apology. "But the captain? _All_ of him was tied to this mission. I couldn't let him have anything or it would find us because he would remember. All I could leave him was his name."

And the magic that Barry had been casting ends and Davenport drops the tray he was holding and, wiping the Voidfish ichor from his chin, stares at Lucretia and says the first words that were not his name in what had to be a long, long time.

"Lucretia...wha-what have you _done_?"

And in comes Magnus—new body and all—with Carey, Killian, and NO.3113 behind him. And behind him is what you can only assume is the Hunger—waves and waves of shadowy figures with empty eyes and terrible weapons that are tearing into Bureau employees who can't see them. And you _know_.

_This is it._

Shit's about to go _down_.

This is the last, and _biggest_ secret of all. The Hunger is here. The world is _ending_.

And that's the truth.

**Author's Note:**

> Like this? Shoot me a prompt through [my Tumblr](http://thesleepiestsheepy.tumble.com) or [my Twitter](http://twitter.com/ArrowAceP). I don't bite so feel free to come off anon.


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